The Mole: Mushroom Kingdom
by Logan Aura
Summary: The Mole. A game of mystery, of distrust, of betrayal, and of money. In this game, 9 contestants play for the chance to win a large sum of coins. But one contestant is looking to decease that sum as much as they possibly can. Can you figure out? Who... Is the Mole.
1. 1-1: Simple Trainings

_Welcome, to The Mole. A game of betrayal, deciet, lies, treachery, and sabotogue. In this game, ten players have been chosen to compete for a large sum of coins. During this game, however, only one of them will win the money, while eight of them will fall to the sabotuer. the Mole._

_the Mole is a red mark upon the game. Each and every member except for them are playing to increase the money in the team's pot in hopes that they will win it in the end. However, the Mole's goal? To create chaos and confusion in the team, to hide themselves within, to make it almost impossible for the team to work together to earn money, and to __**personally **__sabotauge challenges in hope that the players do not notice._

_The players' main quest is simple. Learn who the Mole is, and answer questions about them during the quizzes at the end of each episode, so they can survive the game until the end. The winner? Gets every last coin that has been put into the team pot. The losers all go home with nothing. the Mole goes home with the satisfaction of being a sabotuer._

_The players have been brought into the world of the original Paper Mario, from Toad Town, to Koopa Bros Fortress, to Tubba Blubba's Castle and beyond, they will face a multitude of challenges, trying to earn money. But, let's begin shall we? To the first episode of..._

_The Mole: Mushroom Kingdom._

A woman stood at Toad town's station, tapping her foot gently against the cobblestone below. Her rainbow patterned dress shone in the light as she moved her fingers to her ear, activating the microphone there. "Producer, the train's on its way. Shall I begin?" A muffled noise came from her headset and she nodded, turning to the camera. "Welcome, to The Mole. Today, our contestants shall be arriving by train to begin their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom. As you know, one of them is not who they seem, but that matter is for another time." The woman brushed her white hair behind her ears, before curtsying to the camera.

"I shall be your hostess for this game, Timpani Bleck."

**Given name**: Timpani

**Surname**: Bleck

**Birthday**: 7/13

**Occupation**: Television Show Host

"I do not know who the Mole is either, so I will not slip up and accidentally reveal too much. So don't ask!" The human pointed at the camera with a glare, before returning to her more serious state. "That was a personal request. So let's begin the game, and try to see if we can't figure out what's going on together." She walked off to the side, standing beside a Green thumb print patterned sign with a few bags below it.

The first car of the train carrying the contestants was a soft shade of blue, and it opened up to show a goomba with a red ascot and miner's hat, looking around quickly with her blond ponytail whipping through the air.

**Given name**: Goombella

**Surname**: Goom

**Birthday**: 12/3

**Occupation**: Archaeology Student

"Wow, this is so much different that Rogueport! Definitely a good change of pace from our last adventure!" Goombella turned to the car as a very well-known figure left the car. He jumped over the gap between the car and station right before the door closed behind them, and watched as it moved forward for the next car.

He adjusted his red cap, nodding softly. "Agreed. Always nice to be back in Toad Town. Been a long time admittedly since I've seen it like this though..."

**Given name**: Mario

**Surname**: Mario

**Birthday**: 7/30

**Occupation**: Hero/Plumber

Timpani spoke up and gestured for the two contestants to approach her. "That's due to the constant renovations Toad Town goes through after each of Bowser's attacks. Peach recently found the old plans for this one, so she- GAH!" Mario immediately tackled the host into a hug, a wide grin on his face.

"Tippi! It's so good to see you! After that whole incident with Dimentio I was worried you'd died when you did the thing with your husband and-" The host immediately shoved Mario off, pushing the male to the floor and glaring at him

"Mario! Professionalism! Get it! We're on international television right now!" Mario glanced at the camera and chuckled softly, his face slowly matching his shirt. Tippi moved her hand to her microphone again. "What're the chances of that getting cut out? 0%? I was afraid of that." The host stayed silent, glaring at the Yellow car as it opened up for the next few contestants.

A hoodie wearing koopa stepped off first, rubbing at the bandage on his nose as he whistled slightly. "Oh wow... This place is really nice. A lot different from Petalburg, that's for sure."

**Given** **name**: Koops

**Surname**: Koo

**Birthday**: 1/5

**Occupation**: Mayor

"I'll show you around sometime!" Mario held his hand out towards Koops, and they shook hands in greeting before music started to play.

Tippi immediately mumbled something about a stupid clause in a contract as the famous actress floated off of the train, laughing jovially. "Oh how wonderful it is to be in the spotlight as myself! It's been a long time." She gestured at the Boomboxer who was playing her introductory music and he tapped his head to turn it off. "Thank you dear. I know it was an odd request, but I couldn't help the theatrics."

**Given name**: Flurrie

**Surname**: Cumula

**Birthday**: 5/2

**Occupation**: Actress

The cloud-like woman kissed the aid's cheek and sent him off, before turning to Tippi. "Ah, what a beautiful dress you have. Wherever did you get it?"

"My husband made it for me out of a rainbow. He's a magician." Tippi stayed silent after that though, tapping her foot softly against the pavement as the next car slowly moved. The old friends started speaking with one another energetically, catching up and talking over one another.

"I actually got nominated and elected for Mayor! Koopie is having our first child sometime soon and Dad's so happy about it!"

"I've been busy saving Peach and the world a few more times. I'm here to take a break from all that really since it's just been stressful"

"I'm taking some classes to be a teacher as well! After seeing the Shadow queen's temple I couldn't help but want to share my findings."

"The play based on our adventure did very well, and I got scouted for a television show. I'm not used to it however, so I applied to this."

"GONZALES!" Just as Mario had tackled Tippi, he was soon tackled by a teenage-looking blue Yoshi who slammed into his side in a hug. "Been a long time! How's it goin'?"

**Given name**: Yoshi

**Surname**: Gonzales

**Birthday**: 6/6

**Occupation**: Fighter

Mario gave the fighter a huge grin. "Going good. How's it been with you? Looks like you've grown a lot." Mario held his hand up to Yoshi's head, eyeballing him about five feet tall now.

"Heh, been doing my best to live up to the Great Gonzalez! Er, well Mario." Yoshi rubbed under his nose carefully. "Still gotta get used to your real name."

A soft twinkling giggle sounded and Yoshi's shadow disappeared from underneath him, before a red hat popped out, followed by a purple figure. "I thought it was cute how you always called him Gonzales. Though it does make sense why you'd change, you'll need to know his real name after all if he's the Mole."

**Given name**: Vivian

**Surname**: Darque

**Birthday**: 4/1

**Occupation**: Jeweler

Goombella rolled her eyes and stared at Vivian. "Yeah right. Like they'd pick Mario to be the mole. He's way too nice to be it."

The Shadow Siren let out another giggle, putting a hand to her mouth. "You never know, Goombella. Maybe I'm the Mole? Or Koops? or Yoshi? They could pick anyone at all they wanted."

Tippi gestured the conductor to continue along the line of the cars. "Of course. You never know, the most trustworthy of people could have been chosen because they knew people'd believe them."

An older voice called from the White car. "Quite a pickle, I feel. You never know whether your closest friend or your worst enemy in this game is the one lying through their teeth." The ship-wheel-fused bob-omb looked at the gap between the car and the platform. "... Can one of you give me a hand, I don't wish to fall."

**Given name**: Bobbery

**Surname**: Shipshape

**Birthday**: 8/23

**Occupation**: Ship Navigator

Koops helped Bobbery over the gap and smiled. "You watched the foreign stuff too?"

"Of course! I had to prepare myself some way. I think I have a good strategy for this game."

A soft giggle came from the train as a small white mouse hopped over the gap expertly, glancing to the car and her fellow rider. "Well everyone should. Otherwise, you'll be out as soon as possible."

**Given name**: Eva

**Surname**: Mowz

**Birthday**: 3/8

**Occupation**: Badge Shop Owner

Mario thought about his own strategy, to basically just play the game and have fun. While not the best for the quizzes, he was happy with it. "Nice to see you again, Ms. Mowz."

"Please call me Eva, my hunk of cheese~" She jumped up and pecked Mario on the cheek for a moment, causing the plumber to laugh.

"Is that everyone?" Koops counted the people there. "This was everyone on our adventure, wasn't it?" He turns to Tippi, who looked towards the last, black car.

"There's two more contestants. You've met them on your adventure. One of them we had to have some... complicated things to include them."

"I do have to thank the producer and the Princess for allowing me to compete with the rest of you." A humanoid figure steps off from the last car, brushing off their white button up shirt and tan dress pants.

**Given name**: TEC

**Surname**: Naught

**Birthday**: 1/3

**Occupation**: Programmer/Robot

"... Who are you?" All the other contestants stared at him and he shook his head, running a hand through his short black hair.

"TEC. Peach and the producer found someone to create a robot for me to house in after the X-naut base was destroyed. Do not worry however, I'm only as physically capable as the other humans in the Mushroom Kingdom." He holds his hands up once he noticed one of the others glaring at him. "Maybe less so, since they prioritized my mental capacities."

_Mario: I honestly don't like judging people immediately, but TEC is a bit suspicious. The producer put so much effort into a realistic robot? I really don't think someone'd just randomly go "Hey, let's do this for a contestant who will possibly get eliminated first." ... Then again he did mention Peach as well, and Peach **is** the kind of person who would do something like that._

_ Ema: TEC seems like a lovely character, but too obviously defending himself in my eyes. He could simply be searching for approval... Or he could be preparing to fail a physical challenge soon._

Hopping across the gap, and watching the train head off to the parts unknown, a pink hatted female toad looked around, before nervously glancing at Mario and ducking her head, her cheeks beginning to match her face.

**Given name: **Toadette

**Surname**: Mush

**Birthday**: 10/31

**Occupation**: Florist

The toad stayed at the back as the others happily spoke to one another, before watching as Timpani coughed quietly. "Now that that is settled, I have a few things to do-" The human pulled out a multitude of colored notebooks, each with a bright green stamp on the cover, and placed them on a table beside the books. Each one had a silver number embroidered on the bottom left corner of it, though the numbers were unusual. Each one had one digit that many times, except for one that was numberless. "Here are your journals. These will be the only writing devices you shall have for the course of the game, unless there are some for the challenges. All information you think is of importance should belong here. Now then-" She passed out every notebook carefully to everyone. Red numberless to Vivian first, yellow 1 to Mario, orange 22 to Goombella, pink 333 to Toadette, blue 4444 to TEC.

55555 was a white notebook to Bobbery, 666666 was a black notebook handed to Flurrie- and Vivian and Mario were both seen in the background scribbling everyone's numbers down. Koops got a purple notebook with 7777777 on it, causing the koopa to laugh. "I need all the luck I can get." The green 88888888 went to the white mouse , leaving 999999999 on indigo to the Yoshi.

_Vivian: I had to write that Flurrie got 666 666! It's the number of the beast and the Mole's definitely devilish. Maybe it's one of the "Clues"... I wish I got Toadette's notebook though, 3 is my lucky number..._

_ TEC: 4444. The number 4 signifies death in some cultures, so that number four times is... not a good sign._

_ Goombella: The way the numbers were I was a bit annoyed. Why not just put it in order? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Why make someone have no number, and someone else have something in the millions?_

_Bobbery: Heh, these numbers have to have some significance. Admittedly, my personal thoughts go out towards Koops. he was the only one to actually mention it..._

Toadette spoke up for the first time after Yoshi began writing in his own notebook. "Um... If you don't mind me asking-" She shied away from the attention that got her and coughed. "May I have my bag? I'm a bit thirsty." She pointed to the pile of bags beside Timpani and the host let out a soft, almost taunting smile.

"You will after your first challenge... or someone else might." That... got everyone a bit nervous, and Tippi held three fingers up. "But first, you must split into three groups. The first group is a loner, who "Knows everyone the most." Everyone waited for her to continue... but the host just gestured them to pick someone. "You can't expect me to give you every last piece of information at once." She put her hands on her hips. "Pick the loner and we'll go to the next group."

Goombella jumped up and down. "I think I do! I mean me and Mario were the two who met everyone on our journey." She glanced at everyone, and Toadette spoke up once again.

"You didn't meet me though." The goomba lightly glared at the girl.

Koops frowned softly, looking the florist over for a bit. "Yeah, we didn't meet any female toads on our journey that looked like her..."

"MAMA MIA!" Mario lept into the air in shock, pointing a finger at the her. "You're the one who taught me about my hammers and shoes!" Toadette smiled softly and nodded... causing the others to look just plain confused. "Well that settles it. I'm the only one who met Toadette, and Toadette here has only met me." Before anyone could say anything, he turned to Tippi. "I know everyone best."

Tippi nodded. "All right then." The aide who had played Flurrie's introduction grabbed Mario by the wrist and led him off to another area. She turned back to the group at large though. "And now for you guys, you have two groups to split into. 3 people who talk too much, and 6 who have a shoddy memory."

Goombella paused for a moment, before seeing everyone staring at her right after the first question. "... What?"

"You're going into the talk to much group." Eva laughed under her breath. "After all, your entire aid to Mario was blabbing about enemies' secrets."

"Hey! At least Mario WANTED me to come with him, you on the other hand would've just been another side character if he hadn't gone through the trouble."

Flurrie stepped between the two, pushing them apart. "I think you two need some time apart. With that said, I'm going to join Eva in the Shoddy Memory group.'

Bobbery was still writing in his notebook as he added his two cents. "Talks too much. After all, I've caused many a sailor to fall asleep telling my tales."

"So... One more person for that group?" Vivian looked around, before seeing the pink capped toad. "How about Toadette? If she taught Mario how to use his weapons, maybe she's good at talking?"

With that, said toad flushed pink and ran her hands over her braid. "T... That's nothing, it was a part-time job. I'm only a florist after all."

"Even better." Vivian nods at that, softly smiling and putting a hand on her back. "You probably have to tell people about those flowers often."

Yoshi grins and looks to Toadette. "Yeah! I think you'll do great. Besides, you probably don't have a *Censor* memory if you remembered talking to mario what, 4 times?"

"Yoshi, language." The host tapped her fingers against her arm, before checking her watch. "Twenty seconds."

"So Toadette it is?" Everyone but her nodded in agreement, and she gulped, waiting for Tippi's explaination.

"All right. This challenge is called **Baggage Claim**"The host gestured to everyone's bags, the labels on the side plain as day. "Mario is going to use a few items from your bags to try to identify who has what." Tippi crossed her arms. "Your challenge is to help him. For every correct bag, you get 2000 coins, meaning this game is worth 20000." Everyone let out a quiet murmur of excitement at that as she continued. "You all are going to be telling the three who talk to much what is in your bags- but keep in mind: Mario's only going to be getting things that probably won't be too clear at first glance who it belongs to. So for example, there's not going to be any of your normal outfits, or pictures of you or your loved ones. There may be folded papers but Mario won't be told to open them, and you can't tell him that."

"Hoo boy, this is going to be tough. There's nine of us for those three to talk about." Koops rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Bobbery grinned.

"Nonsense my good koopa. If we take our time we can-"

"Sadly, you won't have much time to do it." Tippi smiled a bit gesturing at the three chosen. "For they have ONE breath to tell Mario everything. We will keep an ear out on your microphones and say if something stops. And? If you do use more than one breath, a penalty of 1000 coins will be taken from your winnings."

Yoshi let out a quiet cuss. The rest of the group eyed the three and Tippi quickly looked at her watch.

"Mario is currently being told his role as well by my aide. You have ten minutes to get things together. Starting? Now."

Immediately everyone started talking about their belongings, easily confusing the chosen talkers who tried to take everything in, until Goombella let out a loud whistle. Everyone abruptly came to a stop a minute in and stared at her.

"We're not going to be able to remember our OWN belongings with that, let alone everyone. How about this, we split into 3 groups again. Two memory, one talker. The talker has less people to talk about, and more time to make use of their breath. Maybe we even should move apart from one another too to make it even easier?"

Flurrie spoke up, lightly grabbing Yoshi and Goombella at that time, "That sounds perfect."

"Come on Eva, Bobbery." Vivian gestured for the two of them to follow her and wandered away.

"Koops, Toadette, I guess that means you're with me?" TEC was quiet, tilting his head at the two of them as they started to converse.

"They're going to be telling you about what they've got in their bags. Your job is to identify, from what they say, which items here belong to which person." The aid had led Mario to a few containers, each holding a few items inside. Mario could easily see his own items and understood what the boomboxer was saying. It... was a bit difficult. At first glance, some of the boxes had very similar things. Jewelry, letters, sports drinks, papers. If his companions didn't tell him the right things, or were too vague? He could easily make a mistake. "Each bag you get right gives two thousand coins, but there's a catch that the others don't know."

The boomboxer held up two fingers to Mario, the plumber quirking an eyebrow in curiosity. "You have two chances to earn an exemption in this challenge. An exemption means you have immunity from the execution at the end of the episode."

That... caught the hero's interest, causing to lean forward. "So what're the two chances?"

The boomboxer gestured at all the boxes. "First one, the easier one but more costly. Don't even put one box with one bag. That costs the pot 20,000 coins. The other one is a bit easier, but it still costs money." He points where the others were communicating. "The talkers only have one breath each. It'll only cost three-thousand coins, but you _must_ have each of them speak after their breath is out. If one of them doesn't speak, your only option's to have everyone be bagless for the first episode... Which could be anywhere from a couple of hours, to a couple of days."

The red-wearing plumber slowly turned to the bags, a hand against his chin as he thought over the offer...

**Commercials Start.**

* * *

_New fanfic, new start! Also remind me never to use the site for spell-checking, even when people were speaking it called out passive voice and gave me a headache. Hope you all enjoy this, I'm having a lot of fun writing this so far._

_I'm well aware there's like... twenty people writing these kinds of things, but I love The Mole, love Mario, and love their fics! Soooo yeah, I wrote this._


	2. 1-2 Bagged and Tagged

While Mario mulled over his decision, the rest of the group started on their quick task, starting to converse in their groups.

"All right, first things first." Goombella looked between her two makeshift partners. "Gonzales Jr?"

"Yoshi." The blue fighter quickly spoke over her. "With two Gonzales's in this game to me, I'm going to get confused. Stick to my first name for now at least, until Mario gets executed."

Flurrie eyed the Yoshi carefully as Goombella rolled her eyes. "Fine. Yoshi. What was in your bag."

"I'm not too sure what they'd take. I mean I'm one of the only ones who wears pants, so those're out. My champ belt is probably out as well..." The fighter scratched his head carefully.

"You must have something in there that'd be chosen. " Flurrie placed her hands on her hips. "I mean even I have a few things, and all I wear is my necklace."

The younger one stuck his tongue out at her before turning back to Goombella. "I really don't know. Probably a sports drink and some of these." The fighter grabbed his wrist, snapping the band against it for a quick moment. "Maybe they'd grab the few badges I brought with me, but honestly I don't know what else."

Flurrie let out a huff and turned to Goombella. "Mario would likely know when he sees my belongings." She turned around at that and turned away.

"What are you-"

"My portion of this game is done, Goombella. I'm going to go see about getting refreshments."

The goomba let out a quiet groan as she watched the actress leave in a flourish, trying to figure out what could be from her own bag.

...

Toadette sipped the soda grabbed from a vending machine in the station and looked at the two a bit nervously. "S... so."

TEC looked between the two, and Koops seemed to simply be twiddling his thumbs. "Joy, I'm with a timid female and a timid male." The robot pointed at Koops. "I'll lead this little group for now. Koops, what're some things that you had in your bag. Doesn't even have to be the things that would be chosen."

"Oh. I have a few bags of Koopa Tea... Some drinks, some bandages, some hoodies..." Toadette nodded, picking a straw and placing it her drink to continue listening and watching the two. "Oh! And some letters from Koopie Koo and Dad."

_Toadette: I may not be some bigshot spy or political person, but I can get a bit of a feel for people or trying to make things up. Something about what Koops said didn't seem to add up to me._

Toadette's brow furrowed for a second. That... well other than specifically Koopa Tea and hoodies was similar to her own bag. She turned to TEC without removing her mouth from her straw. "For me, everything I own has a 0 emblazoned on it somewhere- even myself." The robot quickly moved his shirt, showing a 0 on his left shoulder. "As the last name I gave myself, Naught, means nothing. Well, all I own except for this new journal." Looking at the blue book in his hands, he quickly grabbed a pen and sketched a 0 onto the corner. "There."

It was quick, but it seemed like Toadette had some idea as to what she was going to say. With a quiet breath out, she tossed the soda can into the trash with a quiet clatter.

The two with feet began pacing back and forth as the siren slowly floated in front of them. "Hm..."

"What exactly could they have chosen?" Bobbery let out a quiet oath, glaring at the bags. "Most of what I have tend to be maps after all, and even then what else are pictures of..."

Vivian sighed, slowly putting her hat over her eyes as she frowned. "I can't think about just what I brought with me... I guess this really is for people with poor memories."

"Giving up already are we?" The thief crossed her arms in front of her, before bouncing onto a bench. "Badges. That's quiet literally all I brought."

Vivian pulled her hat back up. "That's it? Why didn't you bring anything else?"

"Because, Vivian. For one thing, I'm a Mowz. I barely wear clothing usually. Second, I'm not one for shiny things unless they are badges." Eva was holding up fingers with each of them. "Food we are provided so that was out as well, same for first aid. The only person I would have pictures of are you all and my brother, but I feel comfortable enough alone. I do it often enough. Besides, I always travel light. Makes it easier to sneak away like I was never there."

Bobbery nodded for a moment, turning to Vivian. "Well it appears that's easy, and I can spend more time on yours and my own."

Vivian put a hand to her mouth, letting out a few musical nhums. "Jewels. I know I'm a jewler and all, but I think with Flurrie, Ms Mowz if they thought they could trick someone, Toadette, and even Mario himself, that's enough people who would have jewels in their bags. What else..."

"Take your time, we have a minute."

"We'd have more if you didn't take so long rattling off things you DIDN'T have!" Bobbery huffed, glaring at the thief for a few moments.

She kept thinking, floating around. "No... No... That's personal, if he opened that it'd be way too obvious..." Vivian blinked. "Oh! I know what e-"

"Everyone, be quiet now. You cannot speak or the penalty will come."

Bobbery's mustached face twisted into a frown, but he could see a few others glaring at differnt people. It seems like more sabotogue was at work than just in his own team...

Mario was led back to the group... And a quick once over at the group showed a strong feeling that this was going to be harder than he originally thought... Tippi and the assistant carried the boxes back towards the bag and turned to the group. "All right." Tippi shooed the boomboxer away and he darted to the north. "You all know the rules. Mario, you're going to be able to take a bit of time after each person to sort the bags."

It was quite blatant the annoyance in everyone's face at hearing that. More time for this game... More options for the Mole to somehow sabotague the pot. The 6 people chosen to have poor memories were ushered off to the side, leaving the three with

"First up... Toadette."

The toad approached, grabbing another soda she had bought and pointing at one of the bags, then at herself. Inside was a sports drink, some letters, bandages,

"... Are you saying that's your bag?" She nodded with a grin, putting a hand to her chin. "... That's... kind of smart. Not even using your breath before finding your bag." Toadette gave a small bow while the host visibly fumed.

Now to begin her actual turn: Toadette hummed quietly before taking a breath to start. "Look for Zeroes and you'll find TEC's stuff, and Koops has letters, bandages, hoodies, tea but thinking on it that stuff would reveal who he is. Our bags're similar." Taking a deep breath, Toadette finished with a quiet, smug smirk

Tippi glared at Toadette and tapped her headset. "I need a ruling..."

Toadette saw Mario glare her way and the pink haired toad drank from her soda again. "I'm guessing it's because you gestured?" She shrugged. "... Why'd you think that was a good idea?" Another shrug. "Okay, if we lose coins, I'm going to find it-"

"Okay, so there's going to be a compromise." Tippi sighed. "While it wasn't explicitly stated that you could only use verbal communication, it also wasn't totally out of the question." Tapping her finger against her arm, the host bit her lip. "Since you guys didn't know that, the _funder_ thinks that Toadette should be rewarded for her creativity"

"REA- meep." The toad covered her mouth, and Tippi shook her head.

"You can be happy about it, it won't be a penalty. But... From now on though- any signs of intentional nonverbal communication meant to help Mario will be a 1500 coin penalty. Worse than an additional verbal one."

Toadette immediately paled at the idea and glanced at Mario, gulping and shooting him a thumbs up. Mario frowned softly as Goombella scoffed.

_Goombella: You know she EASILY could've cost us a thousand coins, and now she's made a WORSE penalty come forth? It's like she's making others sabotogue for her._

_Toadette: You think I expected that they'd make a stronger penalty from doing something like that? If we can't speak, we gesture. All creatures do that though!_

Mario sighed a bit, putting a hand to his head and bit his lip, glancing back at Toadette. "Which one was it again?"

Her hand twitched, but the toad went back to sipping her soda, screwing her eyes shut.

_Mario: Well Toadette didn't even respond to me... Admittedly I thought I could've gotten the "Slip up and talk" just from people not paying attention. But..._

The plumber moved to the bags. "Guess I've got to do what I've got to do."

Grabbing one bag, his own, Mario quickly carried it over to a box with a few stars inside and some mushrooms, placing it there. Moving on to Toadette's bag, he placed it under the box that she had pointed out to him...

Glancing down the row though it looked like there was another box si- Oh... It hit him and he moved over to Koops's bag, quickly darting it over to the box with the same stuff inside. "That's why she had to point it out to me."

Glancing along the row... He quickly moved to a box with a few photos and some devices, looking closely at them... and finding the 0 he was looking for. "TEC could've said **something **about the electronics..."

"I didn't expect they'd pi-" TEC frowned softly as Boomboxer let out a loud Penalty Buzzer noise.

"That's 1000 coins lost TEC. Don't reply or it'll be 2000."

The Boomboxer handed Mario a note, and his sighed as he read it. _Doesn't count unless it's the 3 "Talkers"._

Mario crossed his arms, tapping his foot roughly and turning to Bobbery and Goombella. "Okay, I'm going to listen to both of you, just in case."

"Are you some kind of idiot? You have three chances to choose from and you're going to waste one because you want to be CAREFUL?!" Goombella glared at Mario, before realizing what she'd just done... "Okay, I don't care about the penalty-" She talked straight through boomboxer's buzzer as Tippi marked the second penalty. "Look for a red pen for me, Flurrie says "You'll know when you see it", and Yoshi's got badges and sports stuff."

_TEC: First she glares at me for slipping up when a conversation was pointed at me, then she snaps at Mario and got a penalty right then and there. That is the definition of a hypocrite._

Mario ticked off one, and the microphones were set off by a moderately loud sound, eyes immediately turning towards the source of it- Toadette. She covered her mouth and blushed a little bit, mouthing out "Excuse me" but other than that remaining silent. Turning to Bobbery, Mario quietly looked at him and crossed his arms. "I have maps, Eva says that all she brought were badges, and Vivian could only say "Jewels" due to Eva's ranting."

"I did no-"

"BUZZER NOISES" Boomboxer didn't even bother playing it now, crossing his arms himself as he smirked.

Everyone was outwardly annoyed at the current state of affairs, three penalties already and Mario isn't even halfway done. But one person was holding back laughter at how easily this group lost money.

"All right..." Looking at the six bags, Mario found Bobbery's and Ms. Mowz's bags well enough. Though he had to flip through another box of badges to find something he remembered from Glitzville before making sure. There wasn't actually anything sports related in the box... So he hoped that placing Yoshi there and placing Eva's bag with the other would work.

That left Goombella, Vivian, and Flurrie... Goombella's red pen was easy to find as well, but the next two boxes... One had jewels and makeup... the other had jewels and makeup as well. He wasn't a jewler nor did he really know how makeup worked, so he simply placed the final two bags in a random position, turning to Tippi.

"Finished."

"And now for the results... The boxes and bags will be given to their "Owners"."

Mario quickly placed his own box and bag below his own feet, crossing his arms. "Obviously I got my own bag correct.

**-3000 + 2000 = -1000.**

Boomboxer carried the three "Talkers" their bags and all of them grinned at seeing their own names on them.

**-1000+ 6000= 5000.**

Vivian and Flurrie were next... And the two of them frowned, glaring at mario as they both pulled the makeup from their bags.

"Mario, I know you aren't one for fashion, but I don't believe 'Fire red' is an appropriate color for me."

"And these Sapphires are gorgeous, but blue is more Flurrie's color after all."

The hero frowned a bit, the two girls both annoyed at having the wrong bags, but he smiled. "L-least I got all the other-"

"Not quite." Yoshi pulled a red mask from 'his' bag. "This look familiar."

"That. Is mine." Eva growled quietly, tossing 'her' bag down. "I do not even have one of my precious badges! I have cheap trash ones, and horrid smelling athletic gear."

"W-what? But I found a Glitzville badge!"

Koops rubbed his nose gently and made an awkward noise. "We... Met Eva in Glitzville one before You probably should've looked for badges found in Boggly woods."

**5000+0=5000.**

Nervously, Mario looked at the others. Koops was softly smiling, reading a letter, TEC was already tinkering with some parts.

**5000+4000= 9000.**

"Congratulations everyone, you have correctly identified 6 out of 10 bags, resulting in 9000 coins after the speaking penalties."

Yoshi whistled quietly. "Not too shabby I'll say."

"Could be better but we won about half what we could've." Bobbery smiled gently as he thought about what that money could to to his ship

"However..."

Vivian groaned. "Why'd I expect that..."

"You should know." Flurrie crossed her arms for a quick moment before turning to Tippi. "As Mario was turning to you, I saw Vivian shaking her head in a panic since he had gotten our belongings incorrect... Which I assume..."

"The funder deemed "A purposeful act of nonverbal communication.""

"Wait, why are you mentioning the funder?"

Tippi smiled softly, putting her hands together in front of her chest. "Well simple. As a matter of fairness, any rulings will be placed by either the Producer, or the Funder. The Producer will likely be biased in favor of the Mole, and the Funder is biased in favor of the contestants since she wishes to give away the larges sum possible. So... The Funder will determine if something is worth a penalty after talking with the producer. That way, everything if fair for you all. Understand?"

"Does the funder-"

Before Tippi could respond, Boomboxer spoke up." Nope! Only the Mole 'n the producah know who the Mole is."

"Boomboxer, shush. You're an aide."

**9000-1500= 7500**

**Challenge status: Loss. 37.5% earnings.**

**Total pot: 7500 / 20,000**

Not even a THIRD of what they could have gotten... it seemed like quite a few people were upset by that. And by upset, they had to censor Yoshi's mouth as he cussed up a storm.

"But... That's not all." Tippi turned to Mario. "Mario had two chances this challenge to win an exemption."

"TWO!?" Bobbery and Koops both were fuming at the thought of that, eyeing Mario with jealousy.

"How in the name of the sea does he get two chances for one?"

"Isn't that completely unfair?!"

"Well he didn't get either." The quick burst of anger dissipated as the two humphed quietly, pulling out their notebooks. "He either had to get all of the Talkers to speak a second time... Where the "Talks too much" comes to play." Goombella blushed with nerves as a few people glared her way. "And the second? To completely toss out EVERY bag and box, not even answering one for itself. At the cost of his own bag and this first challenge entirely. But obviously he failed on them both."

Tippi turned and gestured for them to follow her. "Carry your bags, we're going to show you your new rooms for the next few days. All the time to get acquainted to your new belongings."

_Mario: We'd have won that challenge if we didn't have the penalties... I only caused one of them though._

_Eva: BOBBERY. That moronic old fart blames me for 'ranting' when I basically told him stuff that would fit, what wouldn't be in my box._

_Vivian: I didn't quite spend much time... But Mario didn't even have to open the makeup to realize that shades of blue fit Flurrie and reds and oranges fit me. That... was a bit odd of him._

_Yoshi: Seriously? These badges cost over hundreds coins each. Gonzales should've known I'd never be able to afford these! Besides, half of these [Censor] badges aren't helpful in fights!_

_Goombella: I guess I jumped at Mario's neck a bit to easily, but honestly that plan was dumb. And what kind of explanation is "You'll know it when you'll see it"? Mario's got about as much knowledge of makeup as I do!_

_Bobbery: "I don't care about the penalty"? Yes it was one thousand coins compared to a possible six lost... But Goombella only got her own bag as well. All together she earned 1000 coins, and LOST us more than she had gained._

_Koops: I... don't really know what to say about the first challenge. After all, I was with TEC and Toadette, and the only thing suspicious they did was the creating a new penalty, which didn't get used, and responding to Mario asking something... I've really got no suspects._

_Toadette: I think I'm going to need an alliance. A coalition? I think I've heard Bobbery and Koops mentioning that... To see something from all parts of the challenges._

_TEC: I've got a suspect, but I also have someone who I feel is absolutely cleared. Let's... hope that it doesn't bite me in my metallic rear soon enough._


End file.
